The bike sharing system for the city of Minneapolis is on its way.
The city is working to roll out a bike sharing program that would plant 75 bike stations populated with 1,000 bikes in Uptown, Downtown and the University of Minnesota campus.
So it looks like all the kiosks are in the areas of the heaviest pedestrian traffic. This is by no means comprehensive coverage of the city. At least initially.
Bikers would buy into the bike sharing system by paying an annual subscription fee of about $50–$75 for unlimited rides.
Kinda like Hourcar. And if you return it within 30 minutes there’s no charge at all.
The bike’s front-wheel movement creates an electrical charge that automatically powers lights at the rear of the bicycle. The chain is covered, and all of the gears and brakes are internal to the hubs. Bikes feature a unisex heavy-duty frame and handlebars, and a front-hanging basket. A broad seat is designed to be quickly adjustable.
I’m not a hardcore biker, but it sounds like this bike won’t necessarily be a piece of cake to ride. Of course if you’re the commuting type, you’ll already have your own bike and won’t be needing to rent one.
I’ll be really curious to see how this pans out. If it can work anywhere in the U.S., it can work here. Right?
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I know Portland had a bike share program years ago, and apparently has a new one in the works (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/portland-bike-share-program-put-on-hold.php).
Boise gave it a whirl when I still lived there, but basically all they did was spray-paint dozens of bikes bright yellow and put ‘em out. You saw them everywhere for about a week, before the inevitable happened: lots of people took them in, painted them another color and kept ‘em. It sounds like they have a plan to help prevent the same from happening here, thankfully (and since they’re pretty distinct in shape, not hard to spot).
All in all, I just think Mpls would benefit from more bike lanes; there’s just such a huge bicyclist population here, I’d like to see them a little safer.
Yeah, mnspeakers were decrying a yellow bike program in Saint Paul from, like, 10 years ago. If I read correctly, there’s a lot more security to this one.
And you are right about that. Bike lanes to accommodate the many commuters are great, but also making it easier for the occasional rider increases the likelihood that people will do it more regularly.